Judges Comments

We had a lot of discussion over this category, especially what we awarded first and second to. This is two parts of one story about Martin Luther King, Jr., Way. One part is on one city, the other in another. We debated whether this should have been edited down into one story or whether each city's images were a complete story. In the end, we felt the storytelling in each stood on its own, with the Oakland images having an ever-so-slightly better sense of place and light. We also discussed how we have wanted to see this sort of story (and one of us has thought about having our students do it) and really appreciated the thought, time and effort here. This was a big undertaking and to produce such a large set of high quality images is a testament to both the photojournalist and their editors. The third place story was a nice break from the fire images we saw elsewhere this month - these were images with a purpose, images that tied culture, community and concerns together nicely.